The Soap Opera Treadmill

Workout class on Fridays starts at 9:15am.  I know that 9:15 isn't really that early, but after spending the last year working on the evening shift I don't seem to be able to get my act together and out the door before 10:30.  Oh well I'm sure I'll adjust.  Anyway all this to say I didn't make class this morning and so when I did show up the the gym I hit the treadmill.  Cardio is really what I need so it was the best alternative.

All was good, I got a machine in front of a tv so I could read the news and watch the pictures while I walked off the calories.  And it was on said treadmill that my day's entertainment took place.

The man on the treadmill next to me started a conversation with the woman beside him.  I assumed they knew each other because as soon as they'd said hello the man started to recite his entire medical history.  I know he had his appendix out when he was a kid, he had a twisted bowel at some point in his life as well.  He went on to say he had colon cancer number of years back and had his blood tested only to find out he had the colon cancer gene, then to top things off he had a heart attach.  Then he went on to say he now can't go in for his annual colonoscopy because he's on blood thinning medication for his recent heart attack.  The running woman did get a word in between graphically described illnesses, long enough for me to learn she was a nurse.  

So while I got the latest on tv news about the doctor/prof who was taken into police custody at the Chimo in, I continued to hear this man moan on about his medical condition.  How lucky he is to have a daughter who is a nurse and a son-in-law who is a doctor.  I also heard that the medical system is falling apart because he has to wait for a follow up appointment to have more tests post heart attack.  This is too long and complicated a theory for me to explain in this blog but just let me say it had to do with the hospital not dropping everything and making other patients wait and look after him.

All this time the woman listened, gave her advice when she could and kept a lightness in her voice I didn't believe possible while she ran her heart out on the treadmill.  Finally the man's time was up.  He was instructed by his cardiologist to walk for 30 minutes exactly, no more no less.  That's when he introduced himself to the running nurse.  I was gob smacked.  How could this man feel his story would be of any interest to anyone but himself.  I thought this poor nurse, I'm sure she comes to the gym so she can run off some stress, not to hear the medical history of a not so perfect stranger.  

So my lessons learned.  Bring headphones so strangers won't talk to me while I'm on the treadmill...And listening to other people's weird conversations does make time fly by while exercising.